Two years ago, Novak Djokovic was the star on the rise. Brighter than Juan Martin del Potro, certainly much brighter than Sam Querrey, Djokovic stepped up his game getting to the semifinals of the French Open, the semifinals of the Wimbledon, the finals of the US Open, and winning the Australian Open in 2008. Djokovic,
When you're as good a player as Roger Federer, there are going to be plenty of players that have an 0-fer record against you. For Tommy Robredo, he was o for 8 against the Swiss number 1. Robredo faced Roger Federer in the fourth round today, and he felt he'd have to play his best.
Due to an amazing match between Italy's Flavia Pennetta and Russia's Vera Zvonareva, the Murray-Dent match got a late start. Pennetta saved 6 match points, almost everyone on aggressive winners showing the kind of mental toughness that often seems in short supply in the women's tour. Zvonareva, meanwhile was going through an emotional roller coaster.
Perhaps the only guy that can relate to Tommy Haas is Taylor Dent. A back injury lead to surgery and nearly two years off the tour. Dent wondered at times whether it was worth the effort to come back. But come back he did. After being off the tour from 2006 to early 2008, Dent
Jesse Witten's ranking was apparently so low that he needed a wildcard for qualifying. Who knew they gave wildcards for qualifying? Witten's rank is 276. He wasn't ranked high enough to get a wildcard into the main event. By the time he reached the third round, he was getting ready to play his sixth match
At 32 years old, Nicolas Kiefer has been on the tour for 14 years. Watch enough tennis and pay enough attention to the players playing Slams and you'll notice the players you don't know are not 19 year old wunderkinds but 29 year old veterans, who have grinded on the tour for years. On the
How did Jesse Witten do it? His second round match was against a guy named Gonzalez. Gonzo! Yet, Witten was not willing to go down. He was having too much fun. OK, so the way he did it was by not playing the guy named Fernando Gonzalez, but instead playing Maximo Gonzalez. Maximo is from
Marat Safin had one of those careers that had a peak very early on when he reached the finals of the US Open in its millenial year and beat Pete Sampras in straight sets. Here was a talent that people thought, for sure, would rise to the top. Safin would not win a second title
While most watchers of tennis generally care about the very top of the sport, there is some intrigue in watching the little guy beat a somewhat bigger guy. Jesse Witten is ranked 276 in the world. He's 26 years old. There are gobs of American players that have had better results from him. Roddick, Blake,
The US Open is the only tournament that seems to play this really late matches. OK, the Australian Open can do that too. Due to a three set win by Venus Williams over Vera Dushevina, a woman that didn't seem afraid of Williams, Andy Roddick and his opponent, Bjorn Phau, didn't get on court until
